


Darkest Night

by alphamikefoxtrot



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-26
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-24 17:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/942829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphamikefoxtrot/pseuds/alphamikefoxtrot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stars were going out but Rose never stopped dreaming of the battered blue doors, the very same one that used to open to welcome her home and show her the world. The fantastic box that belonged to the man she… <em>Well.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkest Night

**Author's Note:**

> Recognizable dialogues are taken from "Turn Left". Don't own anything. If I do, I won't be posting them here, would I? You'd be watching them.

The stars were going out but Rose never stopped dreaming of the battered blue doors, the very same one that used to open to welcome her home and show her the world. The fantastic box that belonged to the man she… _Well._

He told her once to have a fantastic life. She didn’t know how to do it without him so she started living his life. She became the defender of the (wrong) Earth. She took a job in (the wrong) Torchwood and became _the_ Rose Tyler, just like the Doctor did with his title. The genuine article, the one and only. Busying herself with her job was the only thing she could do to stop her from crying. She would often leave her flat very early in the morning and coming back close to midnight. It hurt too much to actually knowledge that the doors had the wrong colour.

_Stupid ape_ , that’s what he would have called her. Getting sentimental over a bloody door. Sometimes she could clearly picture him rolling his eyes at her like he did when she was trying to pronounce Raxacorricofallapatorious. Sometimes she felt him walking just behind her or ahead of her, just around the corner, bouncing in his sneakers and eager to give her an earful about how humans move very, very slowly and in doing so they miss all the marvels of the Universe that were gone in a blink of an eye. She half-smiled at nothing, looking down on the pavement she was walking to avoid meeting people’s gaze. This was the first time she could think about him without the hollow pain.

A flash of blinding light engulfed her and she was in a completely different setting. Even the _air_ felt different. People ran past her, panicking, without even looking at a woman who had obviously just materialized from thin air. Something must be really wrong. She looked up at the sky and there were more stars than she’d ever seen in the past few months and there were no zeppelins. Not even one.

Rose almost swayed but months of Torchwood training had engraved itself at the forefront of her mind and she was grateful for it. Her elation of being back in her proper world could wait for a moment. There must be a reason on why she was back. More people were running about. Why were people out in the streets at this time of day? With paper party hats? Was it Christmas? New Year? Experience had taught her that she could end up at any moment in time. Even if she was back in her Universe, she must be careful. Rose started walking and listened to people’s chatter.

_A giant star in the sky?_

_The Thames is drained!_

_They found a body!_

The last one didn’t stood well with her and she broke into a run.

“What happened? What did they find? Did they find someone?!” She asked a red-haired woman who was the first person she ran into.

“I don’t know, um, a bloke called the Doctor or somethin’…”

“Well, where is he?” Rose couldn’t hide the urgency in her voice. The Doctor was there. She could only be a step away from him.

“They took him away, he’s dead.”

She felt her insides run cold. _No. He can’t be dead. He’d simply regenerate. He’d… Change his face again._

She was no longer listening to a word the other woman was saying. Why? Why brought her back here? She had no idea just who she was directing that question for. She could scream at thin air and judge the Universe for playing with her life but what good would it do?

“I came so far…”

A hand was on Rose’s arm. “It could be any doctor,” the woman said. She had a look on her face like she was trying to say that she shouldn’t worry this much over a random bloke. 

But he isn’t! Her jaw tightened and she took control of herself. “What’s your name?”

“Donna. And you?”

“Oh I was just…” She thought she saw something on Donna’s back. “I was just… Passing by. I shouldn’t even be here. This is… wrong. Wrong.” She couldn’t keep her eyes off of her back. “So… Wrong…” Rose tried harder to look at the thing on Donna’s back, there must be something there, hidden by a perception filter or in a time pocket. This whole situation was as wrong as the thing on her back. “What was it again…? Donna… What?” She made an attempt to ask for her last name to distract herself.

“Why d’you keep doing that? You keep looking at my back.”

“I’m not,” she lied.

Donna grew more irritated by her denial and Rose thought that it’d be so much better if she could…

…be somewhere else. And she was. The telltale hum of the zeppelins crowding the sky of (the wrong) London was unmistakable.

*** 

Time moved faster in this universe when paralleled with her original world. Since she came back to this Earth, since the Doctor died, stars expanded, causing many aliens to stumble on Earth after they lost their home world. Intergalactic chaos was slowly brewing. Attempts of invasion had skyrocketed and her Torchwood team was at their tether. This was not supposed to happen. This couldn’t have happened if the Doctor… She swallowed bitterly. This was not the time. They were on their own and they had to defeat the Sontarans. 

Harriet Jones was right. There would come a time when the Doctor was no longer around.

Rose couldn’t believe that she’d arrived at the acceptance stage.

*** 

Just this once, for a human, knowing the future and what was supposed to happen was an advantage. She smiled warily as she was telling the story to the most important woman of all creation, Donna Noble. Great achievement… For a human, she thought, paraphrasing.

*** 

A week after their last meeting, Rose found his TARDIS. The creaky blue door swung slightly on its hinges as a gust of wind blew past. They made a hollow and lonely noise like something out of a childhood nightmare. It was as if something behind them was lamenting its fate, endlessly mourning a loss of something precious. It wasn’t gems or jewels or glory or power. It was life. A life lost should never be forgotten. 

Especially when it was someone as important as him, she thought. Her key still worked after all these years so she stayed with the dying ship. She sat down against the curved wall of the TARDIS and remembered. I’ll save him, she promised. My Doctor.

*** 

More stars had gone out.

*** 

Two weeks after their last meeting, Rose found out the cause of this whole mess. Her hunch was right. It _was_ the thing on Donna's back. With the help of UNIT and Donna Noble, she was going to set everything right again.

She smiled as she zipped up her purple leather jacket. Just like old times.

*** 

Three weeks after their last meeting, Donna Noble and Rose Tyler were changing history.

*** 

Her name echoed across the Void, both a message and a warning.

Their time will come again.


End file.
